Slip into my thoughts and do watch your step

Daily Archives: May 17, 2017

After thirty minutes of swimming Penny began to feel the fear that her mother told her she would feel. It was simple: she was an eleven-year-old mermaid swimming into the ocean for the first time in her life, and every minute she continued forward, she headed further and deeper into the sea.

One could look at it scary situation, but Leigh pulled her daughter to push on and in time she would find yourself surrounded by the wonder of a new world.

Part of what scared her was the feeling of weight upon her body as well is the dimness around her. The weight she understood: at that point her journey she was probably more than a hundred feet below the surface, which meant the water pressure was building. She was told not to worry as mermaids could handle pressures at depths far greater than this. And in time she would see it as nothing more than an inconvenience, rather than an issue.

What puzzled Penny the most was that even a hundred feet below the surface of the ocean she could still see things. Though she was still in what was known as the sunlight zone, everything had taken on a sort of murky, twilight appearance, which reminded Penny of walking around her neighborhood well after the sun had set with nightfall approaching.

But everything she was seeing was with her own eyes, and some of the things she had read indicated that this depth she should be able to see much at all. And yet, she could. It was due to her mermaid eyes finally kicking in and allowing her to see the ocean the way she should see.

And her mother said that her that her eyesight would only get better as she went deeper.

After sinking another hundred feet she saw why. The entire ocean around her had started becoming luminous, and Penny felt as if she were swimming through waving curtains of light. It finally struck her what was happening: at this depth almost no sunlight was getting through and her eyes were finally picking up on some form of natural bio-luminescence. Everything around her was bathed in shades of greens, blues, and pale yellows, and after allowing a few seconds for eyes to adjust even further, she realized she could see almost as far now as she might’ve been able to on land.

Embolden by the realization that she would never be completely in the dark, and he increased her speed slightly and pushed on toward deeper waters.

Her senses told her that she’d been swimming for almost an hour and half—just as her mother told her she should—when she noticed something swimming in from her left side, maybe a hundred feet away. At first she thought it might be a shark, but five seconds of observing it’s motion told her she was seeing another mermaid, and she was coming closer. Rather than swim towards the approaching mermaid, Penny held her position and waited for her to come and investigate.

The mermaid came to within about ten feet and stopped. Though she didn’t appear much longer than Penny, the length of her blond hair, the curve of her hips, and the fullness of her breast said she was definitely older. She carried a long, white object in her hands: Penny had no idea what it was, but the way it was held indicated it was some kind of weapon.

The mermaid looked Penny up and down for a few seconds before speaking in The Language. “Who are you?”

Penny consider drawing in a breath before she realized there was nowhere to draw into her lungs. She cleared her throat and began the statement she’d been practicing for a few days. “My name is Little Bubbles of the Northern River Forest. I am the daughter of Crimson Mane of Raging Sea Foam, and I am seeking the Great Sheltered Pod of the Cape.”

The mermaid relax the weapon in her hand and begin twirling a six strand of her long blonde hair around her right index finger. “You’re the daughter of Crimson Mane of Raging Sea Foam?”

“I am.” Penny tugged on the straps of the nylon carryall on her back. “I have pictures of my mother to show, in case anyone needs proof.” She smiled. “I had them sealed in plastic so nothing will happen to them.”

The other mermaid seem to consider Penny’s words for about ten seconds before she lowered her weapon to one side. She swam forward until she was only a couple of feet away. “I am Singing Nymph the Bringer of Death.” She flashed a bright smile. “I’m your cousin.”

Singing Nymph flicked her tail so that she was close enough to Penny to give her a hug. “You’ve met her now.” She pushed back until she was once more a couple of feet away. “Why have you come, Little Bubbles?”

Penny chuckled softly, realizing she was going to spend the next seven years hearing a completely new name for herself. “I’ve only recently discovered I am a mermaid and I’ve come to live with the pod for a few years. I want to learn the ways of our culture.”

Singing Nymph broader self alongside her cousin and held out her right hand. “Then come with me, Little Bubbles. The best way for you to starting learning of our culture is introduce you to our grandmothers and the rest of the pod.”

“Sounds good to me.” She took Singing Nymph’s hand and allowed her to lead as she breathed a sigh of relief.

Penny found her other family and was about to begin the next seven years of her new life.

The carryover from the last episode begins immediately, and without so much as a “Who’s Your Cluster), we get right into the Sense8 action with someone than Lana directing for the first time this season:

Polyphony

Written by Lana Wachowski and J. Michael Straczynski
Directed by James McTeigue

Amsterdam/Transition Moment:

All hell is breaking loose at Rembrandt Museum. Nomi (Jamie Clayton) figures out that the call was made to the police before the murder occurred in the entire building is on lockdown. Will (Brian J. Smith) senses a set up and heads for the exits with the cluster in tow except for Wolfgang (Max Riemelt). The encounter some resistance from the police, which Sun (Doona Bae) takes care of quickly, but it’s in the main atrium that Will will have the most problems getting out. Fortunately, Riley (Tuppence Middleton) and Lito (Miguel Ángel Silvestre) create a diversion…

It’s usually at this point that I talk about what I wrote last night and how many words came out and stuff like that. Usually that’s true. Today–well, it’s sorta true, but not.

I did finish the 16th segment of my mermaid story and posted it on my blog last night. A Facebook friend’s daughter is reading the story and enjoying it a great deal, but she was surprised by something I said in last night’s scene.

See, I indicated that clam shell bras only happen in the movies and real mermaids swim around topless. When my friend’s daughter read this she said, “That means they sleep half-naked! And what about sharks? They need to protect their boobs, mom!” Because when you can be bitten in half by sharks, protecting your boobs with clam shells is important.

I do love, however, that she is so hooked on the story. Which was the idea. And while I’ll keep writing it through the rest of the month.

Now, back to our normal programming…

Phee is about to twist the knife in a little, but before she does she’s about to stick the knife in and twist the damn thing–

(The following excerpts from The Foundation Chronicles, Book Three: C For Continuing, copyright 2016, 2017 by Cassidy Frazee)

While Kerry was unsure about how to answer The Phoenix’s question, Annie had no problems. “Kerry is unaware of the situation between my father and myself because I have not made him aware of the situation.” She kept her tone even and normal, but it was impossible not detect the edge in her voice. “It’s a private matter between my family and myself—”

“And that doesn’t involve the boy you’re going to marry?” The Phoenix looked down as she chuckled. “Oh, excuse me—” She stared at Annie with a mischievous grin on her face. “I forget: you’re already married. You’re just waiting to reach the Age of Emancipation so you can sign a paper, have a ceremony, and head down to your lake house so you can get busy making those little witches.” She looked toward Kerry as she arched an eyebrow. “At least then you can spend as much time as you like smooshing your genitals together so you both don’t have to go to your rooms and masturbate yourselves to sleep.”

“What—” Annie’s eyes grew wide with anger. “Do you spend all your time spying on us? How dare you.”

Yeah, about that… Do we really want to believe that The Phoenix is checking up on everything the people at Salem do? I mean, if she’s curious about humans–and it seems like she is–then she’s in the right place to see a cross-section of humanity in all it’s witchy possibilities, because it’s right there in front of you.

It’s not so much that Phee made the statement she made–it’s that Annie reacted by asking if they’re being spied upon. Which kinda means… well, you’ll figure that out in time.

In the meantime The Phoenix is giving zero shits–

“I do dare.” The Phoenix cocked her head slightly to the left as she approached Annie. “I dare all I like, because I can.” She stopped about ten meters from Annie hand stared down. “What the hell you going to do about what I just said, Annie? Challenge me? Call me out for a judgment match?” The spirit laughed. “I could kill you, bring you back to life, and kill you again before you ever had a chance to figure out what spell you were going to use—and we both know what you’d throw at me first, which means no mystery there. So you can be pissy toward me all you like, but if you think that’s somehow going to affect my mood—” She smirked as she shook her head. “Guess again.

“What I don’t have to guess at is the source of all your daddy issues.” The Phoenix stepped away, grinning. “I believe the word ‘Daddy’ is the key here. It’s bad enough that he, like your mother, walked away from sorcery because they were—how did he put it? ‘Intimidated by the power.’ Yeah—” She have closed her eyes as she nodded. “That was it exactly.

“And not long after that happened there was that period where they tried their damnedest to talk you out of your interest in sorcery, didn’t they? Particularly your father. He was so worried as little girl was going to screw up and do something bad—like say, burn down the house, or maybe kill yourself. And the more he said that, the more that need for you to have them say they were wrong and admit how good you are grew. Maybe that’s not what pushed you later, but at the start: oh man, you just had to show them.

If what Phee is saying is true–and given that she’s been inside the heads of both Annie and Kerry, so there’s no reason it’s not try–then it appears at one point the Family Kiralovi tried to talk their littlest witch out of playing with those Dark Energies. But, hey: she wanted to show her parents she wasn’t “intimidated by the power” and just went ahead and did that shit. Which means you gotta wonder what her folks would say if they knew she killed a couple of people. It’s probable they wouldn’t be happy.

And now a little more twisting over the whole broom thing–

“But what really drove the wedge between you and your father—”

Annie squared her shoulders. “That’s enough.”

“—Was him giving you that Espinoza 3500 and then not showing you how to use it.” The Phoenix leaned against one of the spectral support post of the pavilion and crossed her arms. “Oh, we both know he was busy: it was either a tire test, or he had a team meeting, or he had to meet with officials from either the FIA or The Foundation. No matter what it was, every time he said he was going to take you flying he let his little girl down. And you damn near died trying to prove to your father that she didn’t need his help.” She turned towards Kerry. “I take it you know about this?”

He nodded. “She told me one night.”

“And?”

Kerry shrugged. “And nothing. It’s Annie’s business, not mine. Besides, I got enough crap to deal with without getting in between Annie and her father. It’s really for her to solve, not me.”

After a few moments of stunned silence The Phoenix turned back to Annie. “What do you say about that?”

Yeah, Annie: what do you say about Kerry passing the buck back to you?

What Has Gone Before

Check the Past by Date

It’s been a while since I’ve spoken with you. Perhaps speak isn’t the correct way to put things, but it works for me. In a way, I am speaking to you: I’m dictating this with Dragon software. It seems in the past couple of days Dragon has learned my idiosyncrasies far better than before, and […]